European Commission disburses further €9 billion under SURE to seven Member States

The European Commission has disbursed on March 16 €9 billion to seven EU Member States in the fifth installment of financial support to the Member States under the SURE instrument. This is the second disbursement in 2021. As part of March 16 operations, Czechia has received €1 billion, Spain €2.87 billion, Croatia €510 million, Italy €3.87 billion, Lithuania €302 million, Malta €123 million, and Slovakia €330 million. This is the first time that Czechia has received funding under the instrument. The other six EU countries have already benefitted from loans under SURE.

These loans will assist the Member States in addressing sudden increases in public expenditure to preserve employment. Specifically, they will help Member States cover the costs directly related to the financing of national short-time work schemes, and other similar measures that they have put in place as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, including for the self-employed. The disbursements follow the issuance of the fifth social bond under the EU SURE instrument, which attracted considerable interest by investors.

President Ursula von der Leyen said: “With SURE, we mobilise up to €100 billion in loans to help finance short-time work schemes. Today’s fifth disbursement is great news for the seven EU countries concerned, especially for Czechia who is receiving SURE support for the first time. It will help protect people’s jobs and support businesses across our Union. We are all in this together.”

So far, 16 Member States have received a total of €62.5 billion under the SURE instrument in back-to-back loans. Throughout 2021, the Commission will seek to raise in addition over €25 billion through the issuance of EU SURE bonds.

Once all SURE disbursements have been completed, Czechia will have received €2 billion, Spain €21.3 billion, Croatia €1 billion, Italy €27.4 billion, Lithuania €602 million, Malta €244 million, and Slovakia €631 million.

An overview of the amounts disbursed up to date and the different maturities of the bonds are available online here.

Overall, the Commission has so far proposed a total of €90.6 billion in financial support to 19 Member States, of which €90.3 billion for 18 Member States have been authorized. The Council’s approval of the proposed €230 million to Estonia is expected in due course.

In addition, Member States can still submit requests to receive financial support under SURE which has overall firepower of up to €100 billion.